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Helping athletes cope effectively with injury is likely of great interest to many sport stakeholders. Mental toughness is one psychological factor positively associated with resilience and sport performance, though stubborn persistence through injury might not always be conducive to adaptive athlete outcomes. Self-compassion-a balanced, nonjudgmental approach in relating to oneself when experiencing suffering-might help circumvent these pitfalls and complement injury recovery. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mental toughness and self-compassion in a sport injury context. This study consisted of 2 phases-phase I quantitatively assessed the relationships between mental toughness, self-compassion, and other psychological constructs, while phase II used qualitative interviews to corroborate and inform these findings. In phase I, competitive athletes who were injured at the time of data collection (n = 81) completed mental toughness, self-compassion, coping resources, self-esteem, and self-criticism questionnaires. Self-compassion was positively correlated with mental toughness (r = .48, P < .01), coping resources (r = .54, P < .05), and self-esteem (r = .60, P < .01). Self-compassion and self-criticism were negatively correlated with each other (r = -.52, P < .01). Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that self-compassion was a significant predictor of mental toughness (ΔR² = .07, P < .01), coping resources (ΔR2 = .10, P < .01), and self-criticism (ΔR² = .06, P < .01), beyond the effects of self-esteem. Four injured athletes who scored above the median on mental toughness and self-compassion measures were interviewed in phase II. Thematic analysis generated 2 themes: (1) self-compassion grants access to wise mental toughness and (2) mental toughness helps activate self-compassionate actions during injury. These findings are consistent with recent research and suggest that both mental toughness and self-compassion can work together to help athletes cope with sport injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-compassion has demonstrated many psychological benefits (Neff, 2009). In an effort to explore self-compassion as a potential resource for young women athletes, we explored relations among self-compassion, proneness to self-conscious emotions (i.e., shame, guilt-free shame, guilt, shame-free guilt, authentic pride, and hubristic pride), and potentially unhealthy self-evaluative thoughts and behaviors (i.e., social physique anxiety, obligatory exercise, objectified body consciousness, fear of failure, and fear of negative evaluation). Young women athletes (N = 151; Mage = 15.1 years) participated in this study. Self-compassion was negatively related to shame proneness, guilt-free shame proneness, social physique anxiety, objectified body consciousness, fear of failure, and fear of negative evaluation. In support of theoretical propositions, self-compassion explained variance beyond self-esteem on shame proneness, guilt-free shame proneness, shame-free guilt proneness, objectified body consciousness, fear of failure, and fear of negative evaluation. Results suggest that, in addition to self-esteem promotion, self-compassion development may be beneficial in cultivating positive sport experiences for young women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined the direction of causal flow between global and specific dimensions of self-concept. Although the multidimensionality of selfconcept has been strongly supported in the literature, the hierarchical nature of self-concept has not been established. With the use of structural equation modeling, the hierarchical nature of self-concept was tested using the Physical Self-Perception Profile (PSPP) model both with and without global selfesteem included. Adolescent girls (N = 618) completed the PSPP and Harter's global self-esteem scale during class time in Grade 9 and a year later in Grade 10. When horizontal effects were included in the self-concept models across age, there was little support for either top-down or bottom-up effects. This contrasted with the results found when the analysis was conducted within each time period separately. This research provides further evidence against the hierarchical model of self-concept and highlights the importance of examining the hierarchical nature of self-concept over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To examine self-compassion as a way to promote healthy responses in women athletes when faced with emotionally difficult sport-specific situations. Design Phase I, cross-sectional; Phase II, experimental. Methods In Phase I, participants ( N = 101; M age = 20.0, SD = 2.8 years) completed measures of self-compassion, self-esteem, and narcissism, as well as reactions, thoughts, and emotions in response to hypothetical (i.e., responsible for a team loss) and recalled scenarios. Participants returning for Phase II were randomly assigned to a brief self-compassion induction ( n = 21), self-esteem induction ( n = 20), or writing control ( n = 18) group. Following the induction, they responded to the same hypothetical scenario as in Phase I. Phase I results After partialling out self-esteem and narcissism, self-compassion was related ( p < .01) to negative affect ( r = −.40), catastrophizing thoughts ( r = −.30), personalizing thoughts ( r = −.32), and behavioral equanimity ( r = .28) for the hypothetical scenario. A similar pattern was found for the recalled scenario. Phase II results A MANOVA with Phase I self-compassion, self-esteem, and narcissism as covariates resulted in a non-significant group by time interaction, Wilks' Lambda = .75, F (12,96) = 1.27, p = .25. Follow-up hierarchical regression analysis showed Phase I levels of self-compassion as the only significant predictor for negative affect, personalizing thoughts, and behavioral equanimity. Conclusions Women athletes with higher self-compassion levels generally responded in healthier ways to emotionally difficult hypothetical and recalled situations in sport than their less self-compassionate counterparts. However, future research needs continued focus on evaluating self-compassion inductions and interventions for use in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored gender differences in drive for muscularity (DFM), as well as cognitive and behavioral correlates of DFM. Although men (n = 71) reported a higher DFM than women (n = 126), the difference in DFM disappeared when the emphasis on the form of muscularity shifted from muscle size to muscle tone. Men and women reported a number of similar cognitive and behavioral correlates of DFM. The most commonly reported were physical activity (reported by 74.6% of men and 73.0% of women), diet (33.8% of men, 26.2% of women), cognitive problem solving (32.4% of men, 29.4% of women), leisure activity (21.1% of men, 23.8% of women), and social support (18.3% of men, 23.0% of women). Overall, these results support the relevance of DFM to both men and women and the need to better understand a broad range of cognitive and behavioral correlates of DFM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To examine: i) the mean changes in adolescent females' body mass index (BMI), global self-esteem, physical self-perceptions, social physique anxiety, physical activity, and dietary restraint; ii) the stability of measuring self-perceptions, BMI, self-esteem, physique anxiety, activity, and dietary restraint; and iii) the relationships among changes in these variables over 12 months. Methods: 631 female adolescents (15-16 years old) involved in a two-year study of self-report measures completed validated questionnaires in high school classroom settings. Results: There were small but significant group increases in BMI and social physique anxiety and significant decreases in sport, conditioning, and strength physical self-perceptions and physical activity. Stability analysis indicates moderate to strong stability for all variables. Change analyses indicated that BMI, due to its high stability, is a poor predictor of change in all variables. Stronger significant correlations were noted between change in body appearance self-perceptions and change in social physique anxiety (r=-0.54) and dietary restraint (r=-0.27). There was also a significant relationship between change in physical activity and the physical self-perceptions, although conditioning was the only significant (p<0.05) predictor of change in physical activity (β=0.340). Interpretation: Physical self-perceptions are a stronger predictor of change in physical activity, dietary restraint, and social physique anxiety compared to BMI. This demonstrates the importance of physical self-perceptions when investigating health-related behaviours associated with dieting and physical activity. The decline in physical activity and increase in BMI is an ongoing concern, as is the link between body appearance self-perceptions and dietary restraint and social physique anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-compassion has recently been introduced to Western psychology literature and is defined as an attitude of kindness and understanding toward oneself, which involves taking a nonjudgmental attitude toward one's imperfections, limitations, and failures (Neff, 2003). Although self-compassion has been conceptualized as a construct that is important to one's overall sense of self, it might be also be relevant to more specific self-perceptions, including one's perception of the body. The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of body self-compassion for young adult women who exercise and to discover the essential structure of the women's experiences. An empirical phenomenological methodology (Giorgi, 1997; Giorgi & Giorgi, 2003) was employed; five Canadian women between the ages of 23 and 28 participated in this study. Each woman participated in an individual interview in which they were asked to describe two instances where they experienced body self-compassion. Five essential structures emerged from these interviews: (1) appreciating one's unique body, (2) taking ownership of one's body, (3) engaging in less self-comparison, (4) importance of others, and (5) self-compassion as a dynamic process. A follow-up focus group discussion provided the women with the opportunity to offer feedback on the essential structures. This study is unique in a number of ways. First, this study demonstrates that self-compassion might be conceptualized in terms of specific self-perceptions, in this case, one's perception of the body. Second, the women's stories shed light on the complexity of the self-compassion construct, highlighted by the notion of self-compassion as a dynamic process. Third, the essential structures that emerged in this study suggest that an understanding of self-compassion may promote women's positive attitudes toward their bodies. Further research should test the generalizability of the essential structures that emerged in this study to other populations of women exercisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study that examined gender effects in the construct validity of the Physical Self-Perception Profile (PSPP) for college students. Methods of the study; Results; Discussion.

Individuals who are more physically active, compared to those who are less physically active, typically report more favourable perceptions of their physical appearance and functioning (i.e., physical self-concept). However, there is limited empirical evidence examining how psychological processes associated with physical activity can affect the strength of this relationship. In the current study, perceptions of controllability (i.e., controllable attributions) was tested as a moderator of the relationship between physical activity and physical self-concept. A sample of 189 adults (M age = 23.8 years; n male = 76, n female = 112, n unspecified = 1) read hypothetical scenarios that elicited emotions specific to achievement or failure. Participants completed measures assessing their attributions for each scenario, together with self-report physical activity and physical self-concept. In the final models, the relationship between physical activity and physical self-concept was stronger among those participants who reported higher perceptions of controllability. The effectiveness of physical activity interventions may be improved through attributional retraining to adaptive (controllable) attributions. • Self-conscious emotions, pride and shame arise from fitness-based scenarios. • Controllability moderates physical activity and physical self-concept relationship. • Attribution retraining might improve outcomes of physical activity interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite well-documented benefits of sport participation for adolescents, girls are less likely to initiate participation and more likely to disengage from sport, compared to boys. Due to the highly evaluative and social nature of the sport context, girls' emotional experiences around their body's abilities, function, and fitness are important – yet understudied – predictors of sport participation. The objectives of this longitudinal study were to describe changes in fitness-related and appearance-related self-conscious emotions (i.e., guilt, shame, authentic pride, hubristic pride) and sport experiences (i.e., sport commitment, enjoyment, anxiety) over time, and examine whether between- and within-person differences in these emotions predict sport experiences during adolescence. A sample of 518 girls involved in organized sport completed questionnaires once a year over a three-year period. Results from multilevel models reveal detrimental changes in emotions, sport commitment and enjoyment over time. Further, fitness-related emotions remain significant predictors of sport experiences above and beyond appearance-related emotions thus highlighting the importance of fitness-related emotions in predicting sport experiences. Examining both between and within-person effects is novel in elucidating the predictive capacity of fitness-related emotions as they explain differences between girls – as well as variations in girls' sport experiences over time. • Fitness-related shame and guilt increased; pride, sport commitment and enjoyment decreased over 3-years. • Girls with higher levels of fitness-related shame and guilt, and lower levels of pride reported worsened sport experiences. • Girls reported poor sport experiences at times when all emotions were worse than their own average. • Fitness-related self-conscious emotions contribute to sport experiences above and beyond appearance emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]